Does anyone use PBP/PB/MCSP on a mac?

[forgie]

I'm thinking about getting a 12" iBook to replace my chunky old Dell 8200... Does anyone here use PicBasic on a mac? I am thinking that it should work through Virtual PC without any problems, but I'd like some confirmation from someone if it has been done succesfully (or a report of failure if that's what has happened to you!). Apparently Virtual PC has no problems with USB peripherals, and I know that the Dontronics USB->RS232 adapter (based on the FTDI chip) works in OSX. Can it be done?

......iBooks are so cheap and tasty :)

[picnaut]

Hi,

Beware of USB-to-RS232 converters.
Not all of them (none of mine, come to think of it) support the use of the DTR signal.
This is needed in order to use the MCSP bootloader (as far as I know).

Just something to think about.

Regards,

[forgie]

Hi,

Beware of USB-to-RS232 converters.
Not all of them (none of mine, come to think of it) support the use of the DTR signal.
This is needed in order to use the MCSP bootloader (as far as I know).

Just something to think about.

Regards,

Thanks for the reply,

The Dontronics adaptor has full RS-232 support, so the DTR et. al. pins all function as intended.

[picnaut]

Hi,

How much is the Dontronics one?
I have a Keyspan 4-port USB-to-RS232 that doesn't include the DTR signal, so I'd be curious to know.

In any case, I found a way around the DTR signal, and it's pretty "inexpensive" code-wise.

I posted this the other day:
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2375

It allows you to use the MCSP bootloader without the DTR signal.

Cheers!

[forgie]

How much is the Dontronics one?


$40 US for the one with a 10cm lead - intended for use with a laptop. I know that the same chips have been used succesfully within OSX natively for various other things, but I don't know too much about how well it'll work with VPC. Oh well I guess I've gotta just try the thing!

[forgie]

Well I've got PBP working, but my USB-serial adapter will be arriving tomorrow. I am trying to get my project synced between my iBook and my Desktop PC a little better, and have a folder shared on my iBook into VPC, which shows up as the S drive. I have full read/write privileges for this share, but for some reason I can't compile a project thats on my S drive. When I open the file (S:\Main1.2.pbp) and compile it, I get the following message. If I copy it onto the C drive everything works as per usual. Any ideas as to why this is happening? Are there any idiosyncrasies with PBP as far as filenames go that I should know about? (I know there's some issues with really long filenames)

This is the message I get: "ERROR: Unable to open file S:\MAI~XW).PBP"

Any ideas?

[forgie]

Well as commonly occurs when troubleshooting, reading over my written statement of the problem posed a potential solution..... for some reason PBP can't open "S:\Main1.2.pbp", but it can open "C:\Main1.2.pbp". It can, however, open "S:\Main12.pbp". I have no idea why PBP is picky about extra periods when the file is on the S drive but not the C drive. Any suggestions as to why this could be?

It's an easy problem to avoid, but I'd still like to know why it is that PBP has this issue.

[forgie]

Just in case anyone cares, I did some time tests for compilation and programming using MicroCode Loader running Windows 2000 on Virtual PC on the iBook, and XP on the PC, with an 8KB hex....


My 2.8G Pentium 4:
Compile: 3 sec
Program using serial port: 4 sec
Program using usb->serial adaptor: 30 sec

Total: 7/33 sec



iBook 1.33G G4:
Compile: 12 sec
Program using usb->serial adaptor: 45 sec

Total: 57 sec

Considering that the clock speed on the iBook is less then half that of the PC, I'm satisfied with these times, and if anything maybe having such a long programming time will teach me to be a bit more disciplined in my code writing. Considering that the PC takes 30 seconds to program using the USB adapter, there doesn't appear to be much that could make the iBook faster. Not unless there's a faster USB-serial adapter out there which has full handshaking pins.... if there is I'd like to know :)